Collection Guide
Collection Title:
Collection Number:
Get Items:
INVENTORY OF THE SAN FRANCISCO MIME TROUPE ARCHIVES
D-061
View entire collection guide
Search this collection
Table of contents
Title: The San Francisco Mime Troupe Archives
Date (inclusive): 1959-1999
Collection number: D-061
Origination: San Francisco Mime Troupe
Extent: 77.4 linear feet contained in 73 archive boxes, 16 folio boxes, 1 document case, and map case drawers.
Repository:
University of California, Davis. General Library. Dept. of Special Collections.
Davis, California
Shelf location: For current information on the location of these
materials, please consult the Special Collections Department.
Language:
English.
Parts of the San Francisco Mime Troupe Archives were purchased in 1975 and 1980.
Substantial additional items were donated by the Troupe in December 1997, May
1998, January 2000, and May 2001.
Collection is open for research.
The library can only claim physical ownership of the San Francisco Mime Troupe
Archives. Users are responsible for satisfying any claimants of literary
property.
The San Francisco Mime Troupe Archives, D-061, Department of Special Collections,
General Library, University of California, Davis.
The San Francisco Mime Troupe is San Francisco's critically acclaimed and oldest
professional political musical theater. It began in 1959 when Ronald G. Davis
formed the R.G. Davis Mime Troupe while affiliated with the San Francisco
Actor's Workshop. Initially, the Troupe improvised silent mime performance
"events," but soon added sound, music, and dialogue. In 1962 they began
producing free shows in San Francisco parks and moved from mime into other forms
of drama: first adaptations of commedia dell'arte, then vaudeville, melodrama,
and other American theater. In 1963, they severed connections with the Workshop,
and changed the group's name to the San Francisco Mime Troupe.
In the Sixties, under Davis's direction, the Troupe affiliated itself with the
new counterculture. They published ideas on Guerrilla Theater and Radical
Theater and continued to play in theaters, in the parks, and on colleges
campuses, appealing particularly to the Left. After some fairly unsettled early
years which included revocations of park permits, arrests, and litigation, the
San Francisco Mime Troupe was recognized with an Obie Award in 1967 for
"unifying theater and revolution and grooving in the parks."
In 1970 Davis left the company which then reorganized as a worker-managed
collective. More awards followed: Obie Awards in 1971 for The Dragon Lady's
Revenge and in 1989 for Seeing Double as well as a Tony Award in 1987 for
excellence in regional theater. The Troupe has, for the most part, moved from
adaptations to original works written by members of the Troupe (most
particularly Joan Holden) and continues to use performances to point out
weaknesses in American society.
After forty years of existence the San Francisco Mime Troupe continues to
uphold socialist ideals. They perform in the parks every summer, tour in the
fall, and share their message through annual youth theater projects. Their
mission continues to be "to create and produce socially relevant theater of the
highest professional quality and to perform it before the broadest possible
audience."
The San Francisco Mime Troupe Archives consist of unique items relating to the
forty year existence of the Troupe. The collection contains original and adapted
scripts, financial papers, photographs, audio visual items, promotional
material, correspondence, clippings, and office files. The bulk of the material
is from the 1970s but there is a substantial portion from the first ten years of
the Troupe as well as the years up until 2000.
Other collections held in the Department of Special Collections that contain
items relating to the San Francisco Mime Troupe Archives are:
Identifier/Call Number: D-065:
Title: R.G. Davis Papers
Identifier/Call Number: D-055:
Title: Toby Cole Archives
D-121: Peter Coyote. Papers.
D-145: U.M.T.R. Archives
D-145: U.M.T.R. Archives